HE'S admitted "smoking pot" as a kid and now President Barack Obama has declared that marijuana is no more dangerous to your health than alcohol.

In a wide-ranging interview with New Yorker magazine, the US leader said while the controversial drug is "not very healthy", it isn't as harmful as some people insist.

"As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol," he said.

Controversial ... Marijuana laws.Source: News Limited

When asked if it was less dangerous that marijuana, Mr Obama cautiously said it was "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer".

"It's not something I encourage, and I've told my daughters I think it's a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy," he said.

Expanding on his views on the contentious drug, the president said he was concerned with ensuring laws are reformed to ensure minorities are not disproportionately punished for "smoking pot".

"Middle-class kids don't get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do," he said. "And African American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties."

He added: "We should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing."

Reflective of Mr Obama's views, his administration announced last year that it would not stop Washington and Colorado from legalising recreational marijuana use.

He said the law changes were important "because it's important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished".

He expressed some caution on the legalisation issue however.

Barack Obama talks marijuana legalisation

"Having said all that, those who argue that legalising marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case. There is a lot of hair on that policy. And the experiment that's going to be taking place in Colorado and Washington is going to be, I think, a challenge," he said.

"I also think that, when it comes to harder drugs, the harm done to the user is profound and the social costs are profound. And you do start getting into some difficult line-drawing issues. If marijuana is fully legalised and at some point folks say, Well, we can come up with a negotiated dose of cocaine that we can show is not any more harmful than vodka, are we open to that? If somebody says, We've got a finely calibrated dose of meth, it isn't going to kill you or rot your teeth, are we O.K. with that?"

Marijuana is currently classified in the US as a Schedule 1 substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration, alongside heroin, ecstasy and LSD. This means it is considered "the most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and/or physical dependence".

Comments on this story

We're getting to see the real Obama â¦ oh yes! No wonder his popularity is at a record low compared with former US Presidents.

Upnorff Posted at 10:11 AM January 22, 2014

I agree with Obama - both drugs are just fine in moderation and in the correct setting. Its when they are abused that there are issues. Neither should be in the system of those driving or operating machinery.

Bilbo of Shire of Texas Posted at 11:53 AM January 21, 2014

Omexa, Cannabis only increases degree of schizophrenia in those who already have it.
It doesn't outright cause it.